Exhibition
“We Will Survive. The Prepper Movement and Design”
Röhs Museum, Gothenburg. Display up to 4/10
Remember how quickly toilet paper was emptied from grocery store shelves when Covid took hold? It was just as bad with the hand sanitizer. Supplies ran low and the pandemic became a reminder of how vulnerable our everyday supply chains are. However, some were prepared for an emergency, so-called “preppers”. Now the Röhsska Museum is drawing attention to the culture of preparation in the exceptionally well-crafted exhibition “We will survive: The prepper Movement and Design”.
People who hoard cans and batteries in anticipation of future disasters have been around for a long time, but they are viewed with some pity as atypical. That is no longer the case. Something happened. It is no coincidence that “prepper” became a new Swedish word in 2016.
Climate change, cyberattacks, war and terrorist attacks are making the apocalypse fall like a shadow over the present and more and more people are preparing to survive future crises. The Department of Public Protection and Preparedness has even asked all households to stockpile food and water for at least a week.
Part of the exhibition it’s about preparedness on an individual level and here the scenography is reminiscent of a supermarket with departments such as food, health and safety. Toilet paper, water canisters and silver ribbon have just as much space on the sparse shelves as electric blankets and freeze-dried food. Visitors are also told that some items should be packed in a “bug-out bag”: a type of mobile survival kit that is carried on the back when escaping to a safe location.
So far it’s been easy to get the stuff. When “prepping” became normalized in the early 2000s, this niche quickly developed into a global industry and there is talk of a “doom boom”. The offering on the market is broad and ranges from simple everyday objects to sophisticated technical devices. Of course, refilling water bottles and storing food is a way for people to manage their fears and develop a sense of control.
The threats on the horizon are felt more acutely than ever before, and on a large podium in the center of the exhibition are around twenty miniature buildings associated with various disasters and tragedies of our time. The adjacent walls are covered with leaf-like stencils in alarming colors, depicting a timeline of dramatic events: natural disasters, financial crises, pandemics and terrorist attacks.
It is also available here Doomsday “Doomsday Clock”: a symbolic clock that illustrates how close humanity is to a self-inflicted global catastrophe. The clock was created in 1947 by researchers at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is adjusted annually based on threat images from nuclear weapons, climate change and technological risks. From the beginning the hands stood at seven minutes before midnight, and finally they were set at 85 seconds before midnight. Tick tock, tick tock.
Prepping culture has its roots in the Cold War. After the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the catastrophe has established itself as a realistic future scenario in science, politics and popular culture. The destruction of future times is technically possible. Frequent threats of nuclear war fuel fears of complete societal collapse, which in turn leads to the feverish construction of bunkers and shelters beneath suburban villas. Some more lush than others. There are some spectacular examples, but unfortunately they are not noticed at the exhibition.
One of these is “Atomitat” from 1962, a fully furnished, underground residential building in Texas with artificial daylight, adapted for life after the disaster. Another contemporary example is an exclusive facility hidden beneath the luxury hotel The Greenbrier in West Virginia that was intended to house the U.S. Congress in the event of nuclear war.
However, it depends on willingness about more than shelters and equipment. Knowledge and skills are at least as important: a rope is of no use if you can’t tie knots. A precursor to the prepping culture highlighted at Röhsska is the Whole Earth catalog. It is a cult publication with sound advice and tips on how to solve everyday problems and needs using simple means and available materials. Independence is the ideal and the target group of people who want to live alternatively.
It is one thing for individuals to equip themselves. But governments and authorities are also planning how to protect the population, and another part of the exhibition will have a range of impacts across the world. Japan is one of the countries most affected by disasters and the metropolis of Tokyo is carefully prepared for it. This includes everything from personal equipment to emergency slides in residential buildings to a network of convenience stores with their own water and energy supplies.
Over the years, Sweden has built a large number of emergency shelters, only Switzerland has more – as neutrality was not considered a guarantee of safety. Below Helsinki lies a second capital with a parking garage, swimming pool, museums, church and running track. The underground spaces were originally created as shelters during the Cold War, but have continued to expand and now total almost 13 million cubic meters. That’s the size of over 5,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
A retreat underground So still the strategy and if you have large financial resources, there are exclusive apartments in the “Survival Condo Project” in Kansas. There, a disused nuclear missile silo was converted into bunker accommodation with a high level of comfort, its own water treatment system, library, swimming pool and cinema. The residents have to survive without contact with the outside world for up to five years: surviving in luxury packaging.
Others have to make do with a “bug-out bag,” and the exhibition also features hundreds of other objects: everyday objects, architectural sketches and models, clips from films and computer games. However, it is far from a superficial cavalry. At the same time, the museum shows how catastrophic thinking now dominates ideas about the future. Fear of nuclear weapons has been replaced by fear of climate change, an ongoing low-intensity crisis.
The exhibition, originally produced by the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Switzerland, was adapted to Swedish conditions and expanded with material from the current civil protection authority.
Another addition could come from any Swedish design school whose students have long been involved in so-called speculative design. These are usually future scenarios characterized by environmental disasters, resource scarcity and system collapse. Hopeful expectations for tomorrow are rarely the starting point.
When Röhsska opened the basic exhibition “Design Stories” this year, in my opinion and that of some others, it was chaotic and incomprehensible. The borrowed “We will survive” confidently compensates for this low point. The topic may be dark, but the exhibition organizers manage to reconcile apocalyptic scenarios with everyday reality. There is also a detailed catalog full of examples and perspectives.
The message seems to be that everyone should be a “prepper”: hope for the best, prepare for the worst. As I walk through the exhibition, however, the question arises as to whether more people shouldn’t try to solve society’s problems instead of preparing for ruin. But that’s another story.
You can read more texts by Sara Kristoffersson and more about art on dn.se
